A Silent Office
by KevIsTehAwesomeness
Summary: Set sometime after The Runaway Bride and before Partners In Crime. Donna has just started working at this Health & Safety firm, but the staff keep seeing things and then forgetting about it. She decides to investigate. After all, it's likely The Doctor will be there.
1. Forgetfulness

Donna Noble walked into the 12th floor of Leo & Hart's OH&S building, walking past the friendly blonde receptionist she met when she started this job yesterday.

"Morning" She greeted her.

"Morning" Donna replied back.

She walked down to the far end of the room, where her desk and cubicle were located. She placed her bag down on the floor as she took a seat.

"You come in early for a temp" Lisa, the girl who worked at the cubicle next to her, stated.

"I may just be a temp, but I gotta work, same as you" Donna replied.

Lisa just shrugged and started typing away on her computer. Donna booted up the computer. Look at you, she told herself, sitting in a Health And Safety job, on a computer, basically doing jack all. That day she refused that Doctor Martian man's offer was the worse day of her life, she thought as began typing up a report, she wanted out of this boring plothole. So she'd registered on all kinds of paranormal websites, hoping something would come up that she could check out, hoping that he would be there. So far, she'd got nowhere. The first time, it just ended up being a rat infestation in the hospital's kitchen. The second time, she actually got somewhere. There was energy being sensed late at night inside that Haunted House every schoolkid keeps talking about. She'd actually met some ghosts, and helped them crossover. It was a great yet freaky experience and all, but no Doctor to be seen. She was just about ready to give up on her search. She had finished typing up her report as the phone on her desk rang.

"Leo & Hart's Health & Safety Division, Donna speaking" Donna answered it as she clicked 'Print' on her screen.

Donna turned to Lisa, still talking to the customer, and silently asked her to collect her print job. Lisa, who was very skinny and wore red hair tied in a bun and glasses, nodded as she got up and walked over to the printer, which was directly behind them, just five feet away.

"Donna" Donna heard Lisa say.

"Well, I'm sorry it's faulty, but you need to have kept the docket" Donna, who was still facing her screen, continued to the customer as she held up a hand to Lisa.

"Donna" Lisa said again, louder this time.

"What is it?" Donna asked as she slammed the phone down on the receiver, and noticed Lisa walk back to the desk with her printed paper.

"I don't remember" Lisa said, standing there for a few seconds.

"Well, don't waste my time, then," Donna said, then taking a glance at the paper, "Is that my first page?"

Lisa stood there silently for a few seconds, then shook her head, handing Donna the paper, "Yeah"

"Great, thanks" Donna said, taking the paper and placing it down next to her, beginning to type again as Lisa sat down.

The two girls continued typing away on their computers for another half an hour when Lisa broke her silence. She was looking to her right, stiff in fear.

"Donna" She said.

"Not now, Lisa," Donna told her, "I'm concentrating"

"No, but Donna, there's-" Lisa began.

"There's what?" Donna asked, still typing.

"There's a-"Lisa started as she turned to look at Donna, whose eyes were still on the screen, fingers typing away, "Never mind. I don't know what I was going to say"

Donna rolled her eyes as she hit the 'Print' button on her screen. This girl was really out of it today. Forgetting things she was going to tell her. Donna didn't know how she'd managed to keep this job for that longif this is what she was always like.

"Would you mind getting my other page I just printed?" Donna asked her, pointing behind her back to the printer.

"Sure" Lisa said as she got up and walked over to the printer.

Lisa saw Donna had begun typing away again as she got up. She walked over to the printer. And saw Donna's printed page was blocked. The printer read 'ERROR: PAGE STUCK'. Damn ting, Lisa thought, always happens. She tried fiddling with both the printer and paper for twenty minutes to no avail.

Donna was about to hit 'Print' on the third page she'd typed up when, out of habit, she put her hand to her side and only felt the one piece of paper. That was odd, there should be two. Lisa should have brought it back by now. She spun around on her chair to face Lisa's desk to see Lisa wasn't back yet. But that's not what she was staring at. Further down, near the archway of some small stairs that lead to the bathrooms and the interview rooms, was a creature. It was tall, had a rounded head and wore a black suit with a black tie.

"Lisa, are you there?" Donna asked.

"Yeah, your page is coming, the printer's jammed is all" Came the response from Lisa.

"Never mind the printer, I see it" Donna said, staring at the creature.

"See what?" Came Lisa's response.

"That thing you wanted to tell me about" Donna replied.

"What thing? I never wanted to tell you about anything" Lisa answered her.

"Yeah, 'cause you forgot about it" Donna said.

"Forgot about what?" asked Lisa.

"Just look over near the stairs!" Donna commanded.

From her spot, Lisa turned her head in the direction Donna was looking and saw the creature.

"Ohmygod, what is," Lisa began, turning her head back to Donna, "What are you looking at, Donna?"

"See, you completely forgot-" Donna started as she turned her head to look at Lisa but then cut herself short.

"Forgot what?" Lisa asked.

"I don't know. My page, I guess" Donna replied as she spun back around to her screen.

"Printer's working now, here it is" Lisa said as she placed the paper on top of Donna's other page.

Donna scrolled up to the top of her page before she clicked 'Print', making sure to proofread her work. But as she was reading through the letters, something in her brain was fizzing. There was something she was missing. Not in her work, but in her surroundings. She'd met spider-aliens and ghosts,so she knew it was something strange. And she had an urge to look to her right fr some reason. So she did. That's when she saw it again. That round headed creature in a suit. Just standing there. Watching her. She stared at it for a few seconds before getting up, not taking her eyes off it.

"I'm just taking a break, if anyone asks" she told Lisa.

"Break. Got it" Lisa replied, typing away.

Donna began slowly walking towards the creature. Little slow steppy-steps. Then it noticed what she was doing and began walking up the stairs. Oh no you don't, Donna thought, power-walking faster, following the creature up the steps. As she got to the top of the steps, she saw the door of the Men's bathroom swing shut forcefully. Gotcha, she thought to herself, beginning to open the door as at the same time a man walked out. He gave her a strange look. She smiled at him awkwardly.

"Oops, wrong bathroom," Donna told him, "Just new"


	2. Face To Face

Donna waited until the man had fully turned the corner and gone down the steps out of sight before she looked both ways and quickly ducked into the bathroom. She slowly shut the door and turned around to see the creature standing at the other end. So she wasn't dreaming earlier. There were creatures in this building. But none of the staff seemed to notice. And when they did, they seemed to forget once they looked away. She smiled at this. Oh, this is brilliant. This is really brilliant. This is something that would bring him here. Third time lucky, as they say. She realised the creature was still staring at her.

"What are you?" She tilted her head, "Do you talk? Can you speak English?"

"You are not afraid" The creature said in a low muffled voice.

"Well, of course I'm not," Donna replied, "I've met aliens and ghosts before, why would I be?"

The creature stared at her again, without a word.

"What is with you and staring?" Donna accused it, "What are you, why are you so silent?"

"We are The Silence," it said, "You are Donna Noble"

This jolted Donna a bit. How could they know who she was? Were they following her and she didn't even know it?

"How do you know my name?!" Donna asked.

She noticed it was looking over her shoulder. At that moment, she realised which bathroom she was in. But then realised what this 'Silence' was aiming for. But she was smarter than that.

"Oh, no, you don't" She said.

She backed up against the door, which was being pushed open by somebody. She pushed it back, not taking her eye off the Silent.

"What's going on? I need to use the toilet!" Came a man's voice from outside.

"Use the disabled!" Donna said, putting on her best man voice.

"But this door's open!" Came the man's reply.

"Uh...I'm cleaning, forgot to close the door" Donna replied.

"Okay, fine" The man said.

"Okay, so tell me, how come no one can remember you after they've looked away?" Donna asked, normally, after she heard the man's footsteps moving away.

The Silent was silent. Donna glared at it.

"Alright, you're not gonna answer that, then. Are you the only Silence here?" She asked.

"There is another of us wandering the halls of this building" The Silent responded.

"What are you after? Why are you even here?" Donna asked.

The Silent was once again silent for a moment, then said "We are too early"

"Too early?!" Donna queried, "Too early for what?! What plans do you have?!"

With that, the Silent teleported out of the room, which looked more like zooming through the window.

"Come back! I want answers!" Donna yelled at the window.

"Um.." Came another man's voice.

Donna turned around and saw that Neville from the Accounting sector was standing at the doorway.

"Who are you shouting at?" He asked her, "And why are you in the Mens'?"

"I...Uh..don't remember..I guess I just got lost..Sorry" Donna said as she walked past him and out the door.

She stopped outside the door. That sensation was in her head again. The sensation of something going on. And for some reason, her brain was determined on telling her The Doctor might be here and that she should go looking for him. She didn't know what to do. She couldn't remember why she was in the Mens' but her brain was telling her there's a good chance that the man who can take her away from this boring life was here. She looked either side of the empty hallway and decided on looking for The Doctor. She walked up a few more flights of stairs, and noticed a skinny leg walk around the corner that lead to the staffroom. Oh, this is it, she grinned, she'd finally found him. She hurriedly rushed around the corner to see...the other Silent was standing there, watching the staffroom. Maybe not The Doctor, but he's gotta be close, right?

"Oi!" Donna shouted at it.

The Silent turned around to stare at Donna. Donna slowly moved her hands into her jacket pocket. The Silent noticed what she was doing and began raising it's own hand.

"Whoa, whoa, calm down, it's just my phone" Donna said, quickly pulling her phone out and clicking the camera button on the side of it.

The Silent still didn't say anything.

"Your friend said you're too early," Donna told it as she clicked the camera button once more, "What are you too early for?"

There was no response from the Silent.

"World domination? The Elections? Holographic telephones?" Donna continued, giving it guesses.

"We are too early" The Silent eventually said.

"Yeah, I got that bit," Donna said sarcastically, "But for what?"

No answer. The Silent just jolted then ran down the fire exit stairs. Donna ran to the entrance of the stairway but the Silent had disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. She glanced down at her phone, which was the picture of it she just took. Maybe it ran downstairs because oh, who's sending them down there, that Martian man, maybe? She ran to the sqaure window on the side of the wall, and looked out it. She glanced down onto the street below, and looked everywhere, but no sign of a big blue box. Another dead end for her. She sighed as she heard a voice from beside her.

"Ms. Noble" It said.

Donna turned around, taking glances at the photo on her phone, to see the Head of the organisation, Lily Vevett. She had her long curly blonde hair loose down her back.

"Why are you looking out the window of the 13th floor?" Lily asked her.

"Admiring the view?" Donna lied.

"My office. Now" Lily ordered as she lead Donna down the hallway and into her office.

Along the way, Donna kept her eyes on her phone, even as she sat down. Lily glared at her and coughed. Donna looked up.

"Phone away, now" Lily ordered.

Donna nodded and moved her hands to her lap, keeping her phone and the photo of the Silent in front of her but out of view of Lily.

"Why were you on the thirteenth floor instead of at your desk on the 12th?" Lily asked her.

"Admiring the view, like I said" Donna replied.

"Oh, please, I've heard better lies than that in my years here" Lily responded.

"You wouldn't believe the truth" Donna stated.

Lily raised an eyebrow at Donna, "Try me"

"All right," Donna said confidently, glancing down at the photo, "Aliens"

"Oh, that's pre-" Lily began but Donna cut her off.

"That you all see," Donna continued, "But the minute you look away, it's like nothing has changed. Now I don't know why that is, but it is"

Donna paused to look down at the photo, then continued, "There's one of them wandering this whole building and you're all oblivious to it because you forget about it"

Lily gave a little giggle before she said anything.

"Basically what you're telling me is that aliens have come to Earth and for some reason one of them is in my building but once we see it, we all forget about it?" She said, another giggle, "Not only is that completely impossible, but I've never heard such a spun out excuse in my life"

"Look," Donna said, taking another look at her phone before getting up off her chair, "You can choose to believe what you want, but I'm telling you, that thing out in your hallways is freaky and I can't stay working here while every. single. person in this building is oblivious to it's existence. Good day, Miss Vevett"

She shoved her mobile into her pocket and stormed out of the office.


	3. Another Lead

Sylvia Noble was cutting potatoes when Donna came in the door.

"You're home early," she said, continuing cutting, but poking her head around the corner, "What happened?"

"Nothing happened," Donna said as she walked into the living room, "I just left"

"For the day?" Sylvia asked, turning back to the potatoes.

"For good" Donna replied, putting her bag down on the couch.

"Now why on Earth did you do that for?" Sylvia asked her daughter, whinging.

Donna stopped in her tracks, silent for a moment. Now that she thought of it, she didn't know why she left. She just did. All she remembered was that something happened, and there was no sign of The Doctor.

"I can't remember," She said to herself, "I'm sure it was a good enough reason anyway"

She sat down at the table, opening up her laptop and logged onto one of the paranormal forums she was registered on. She scrolled down the topics as Sylvia began complaining.

"You know you can't just keep leaving jobs, you may have been just a temp, but it was still a job, you can't keep staying at home on the dole on the computer all the time and going out late at night. I mean, just last week you were out all night and didn't come home until nine 'o' clock in the morning. Where were you? What were you even doing? Donna, are you listening to me?..." Sylvia went on and on.

Donna sighed and rolled her eyes, picking up her earphones and putting them in her ears, letting her hear the soothing X-Files background music on this forum. She continued scrolling through the topics, looking for ones that might bring The Doctor here. But this was three times she's searched. Like any of these topics would be a lead to him. One about the bees disappearing, which she already knew but never was bothered to investigate because she thought it was just bee migration or something. Then she saw it. "The fat just walks away?" This sounds like something out of this world. And with so many question marks, the user must be very curious about it. She double clicked on the topic and began reading the thread.


End file.
